User interface reading email conversations

ABSTRACT

Emails modeled as conversations are displayed in a user interface that enables users to read and interact with the emails within a conversation intuitively. Conversation breaks, such as those in an in-reply-to relationship between messages, are presented utilizing extra spaces between displayed message parts, excerpts of parent messages displayed above the message following the break, and/or graphical elements like broken connectors. Relationships between a user selected message and its parent within the conversation defined relationship are illustrated using graphical elements or schemes that focus on the selected message to avoid confusion due to information overload.

BACKGROUND

Exchanged messages are treated in conventional email systems similar toregular mail. This data model addresses single, standalone, one waycommunications effectively. However, increasingly email is no longerstandalone, or simple one way communication. A given email is now oftenpart of a large protracted “conversation”, an interrelated series ofmessages that, when viewed over time and in aggregate, more closelyresembles an interactive discussion between people and groups.

While some indication of reply and/or forwarding relationship betweenmessages may be provided in conventional systems, the user interfaces donot typically present the user a visually user-friendly representationof the messages in an email trail or conversation with theirrelationships that includes an intuitive way for an e-mail user to readand interact with an e-mail conversation of random complexity.

E-mail conversations are logically formed by e-mail messages linked toeach other via an in-reply-to relationship. Typically, a sender sends anoriginal e-mail to a set of recipients, which may reply to that messageand then to subsequent replies thus building a conversation (a tree ofe-mail messages, effectively). Building a user interface to display allthese messages and their in-reply-to relationships is not an easy task,especially as the number of multiple replies to the same messageincreases (also called “branch points”) and the conversation becomesless linear.

SUMMARY

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended asan aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

Embodiments are directed to providing an intuitive way for an e-mailuser to read and interact with an e-mail conversation of randomcomplexity. A user interface is provided for displaying conversationbreaks effectively by utilizing spaces between displayed messages andthe way messages are displayed. Relationships between messages are alsodisplayed in an efficient manner utilizing graphic elements that areadjusted based on user indication of selection of a message.

These and other features and advantages will be apparent from a readingof the following detailed description and a review of the associateddrawings. It is to be understood that both the foregoing generaldescription and the following detailed description are explanatory onlyand are not restrictive of aspects as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a conceptual diagram of exchanged emails like aconversation;

FIG. 2 is another conceptual diagram illustrating a conversation'srelationships with other aspects of an email application;

FIG. 3 illustrates example email application user interfaces displayingmessages as part of a conversation;

FIG. 4 illustrates another example email application user interfacedisplaying messages as part of a conversation;

FIG. 5 illustrates an email application user interface according toembodiments displaying messages as part of a conversation;

FIG. 6 illustrates the email application user interface of FIG. 5displaying messages as part of a conversation upon selection of anothermessage by the user;

FIG. 7 is an example networked environment, where embodiments may beimplemented;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an example computing operating environment,where embodiments may be implemented; and

FIG. 9 illustrates a logic flow diagram for a process of displayingemails according to a conversation in a user interface according to oneembodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As briefly described above, emails modeled as a conversation in an emailapplication may be presented in an intuitive way for an e-mail user toread and interact with an e-mail conversation of random complexity. Inthe following detailed description, references are made to theaccompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which are shown byway of illustrations specific embodiments or examples. These aspects maybe combined, other aspects may be utilized, and structural changes maybe made without departing from the spirit or scope of the presentdisclosure. The following detailed description is therefore not to betaken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention isdefined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

While the embodiments will be described in the general context ofprogram modules that execute in conjunction with an application programthat runs on an operating system on a personal computer, those skilledin the art will recognize that aspects may also be implemented incombination with other program modules.

Generally, program modules include routines, programs, components, datastructures, and other types of structures that perform particular tasksor implement particular abstract data types. Moreover, those skilled inthe art will appreciate that embodiments may be practiced with othercomputer system configurations, including hand-held devices,multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumerelectronics, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like.Embodiments may also be practiced in distributed computing environmentswhere tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linkedthrough a communications network. In a distributed computingenvironment, program modules may be located in both local and remotememory storage devices.

Embodiments may be implemented as a computer process (method), acomputing system, or as an article of manufacture, such as a computerprogram product or computer readable media. The computer program productmay be a computer storage media readable by a computer system andencoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computerprocess.

The term ‘message’ as used herein includes—in addition to regular emailmessage—electronic mail system objects like invitations, meetingnotifications, notifications of updates to meeting dates/times, messagesthat acknowledge receipt of messages or indicate a message has beenreceived and read, messages that indicate a message has been receivedand discarded before being read, as well as a number of other artifactsthat may appear to be part of how a human conversation may be modeled.For example, based on an email conversation one may schedule a meeting.The process of scheduling the meeting may involve multiple iterations ofpeople accepting or rejecting the meeting proposal, as well proposingnew times/dates/places. Some users may consider theinvitation/accept/reject objects as “messages”—thereby part of theconversation—whereas other users may not.

Referring to FIG. 1, a conceptual diagram of exchanged emails like aconversation is illustrated in diagram 100. Diagram 100 shows threeusers of an email system exchanging messages. The messages exchangedbetween users 102, 104, and 106 may include regular text-based messages(100), image or graphics documents 112, textual attachments 114, oraudio messages 116. As shown in the diagram, the messages may be sent byone user to another or multiple others (e.g. user 102 to user 104 orusers 104 and 106). Responses to the original message may be receivedfrom different parties, which themselves may be sent to all participantsor to the originator. Thus, the exchanged messages may have acomplicated structure, while all together representing a conversationamong the participants (users 102, 104, 106).

In a system according to embodiments, not all messages that are part ofthe same conversation need to be stored in the same folder because thefolder structure may group the messages differently. For example, afolder hierarchy may have a folder for claims made by an insuranceclient, and another for questions from that client. A conversation maybe a claim followed by a series of questions. Furthermore, theconversation itself may have properties (e.g. a descriptive name for theconversation, the size of the conversation, annotations about theconversations such as if the conversation is complete, or a defaultfolder to store messages for that conversation). Thus, a conversationmay include messages from a single folder, multiple folders, and doesnot need to be a storage for its messages so that properties of thatconversation can be preserved. As discussed below, a conversation may beimplemented as an independent object within the email system along withits own attributes in addition to its email having their own attributes.

According to other embodiments, a logic conversation object may beemployed to organize messages as part of a conversation. Theconversation object may be realized as a physical artifact or generatedon demand. When a message is introduced into an email system, it mayinclude an indication of which conversation (or conversation branch) itis a part of. According to further embodiments, a message's conversationmay be determined through a variety of techniques, if that informationis not directly provided by the message.

A conversation object may have associated properties, and it is agrouping or aggregation mechanism for messages. It is distinct, becausethe messages in the conversation have a specific order, that it notstatically created by a user (like in a folder). The conversation objectmay also be automatically created whenever a message is introduced thatis determined to not be an element of an existing conversation.

Some conventional email systems have categories for messages, but aconversation is distinct because a conversation is an inherent propertyof a message and is not directly set. An order of messages in aconversation is critical, conversations are not statically created, andconversations have properties that transcend the messages within aconversation. For example, a category may be a property of aconversation.

FIG. 2 is another conceptual diagram 200 illustrating a conversation'srelationships with other aspects of an email application. An emailapplication may have many aspects such as scheduling items,complementary user interfaces for presenting attachments (e.g. audioplayers, video players, image editors, etc.), and so on. Major aspectsrelated to conversation are discussed here.

As a structured aggregation of messages, conversation 222 interacts withfolders 224 of an email application, which provide categorized storagefor the emails. As mentioned previously, conversation 222 may includemessages from several folders. Conversation 222 is, of course, anaggregation of a subset of messages 226. It is created (or started) by amessage that does not belong to an existing conversation and includesonly messages that are related to each other by virtue of being part ofa common exchange.

Conversation 222 also interacts with user interface 228 presenting themessages and their relationship so that a user can easily determine anorder and a relationship of the messages among each other. Conversationproperties as well as message properties may be presented to complementeach other for a user-friendly display.

As mentioned previously, a conversation may have properties of its own(in addition to the properties of message within the conversation).Conversation properties may include any attribute that can be associatedwith a conversation. Some examples of conversation properties include adefault folder name for the messages, a “mute” property (pushing theconversation to the background without eliminating it), a list ofcategories associated with the conversation, a number of messages withinthe conversation, a date and time of a first message initiating theconversation, a list of participants in the conversation, a total sizeof the messages within the conversation, and so on.

FIG. 3 illustrates example email application user interfaces displayingmessages as part of a conversation. Some email user interfaces maypresent messages as part of a conversation, but are limited oroverwhelming in the amount of information provided to the user. Inexample diagram 300, messages part of a conversation initiated by theemail from user Lorem Ipsum are presented in tree view 332 usingindentations for each reply. Individual messages may also be displayedon a separate view pane upon selection by the user from tree view 332.

While this approach helps the user navigate through the messages in theconversation, it fails to provide information about messages when thereis a conversation break (i.e. a message is not in-reply to a precedingone). Furthermore, if additional information about each message isprovided such as a portion of the content, subject line, etc., the userinterface may become overwhelming for the user and the relationships maybe lost in the amount of information displayed.

User interface 340 is an example for one end of the spectrum of userinterfaces. User interface 340 lacks almost any information about therelationship between messages of the conversation. The exampleconversation in user interface 340 is titled “What's Up?”, but that ispretty much all the information provided to the user. Messages arelisted with originators (342), time, and a portion of the content foreach message. In this example, the messages are ordered chronologicallywith the newest message 344 at the bottom of the list. However, it isalmost impossible to determine from the user interface, which message isin-reply to another and other relationships between the messages.

FIG. 4 illustrates another example email application user interfacedisplaying messages as part of a conversation. User interface 450 is anexample of the other end of the information spectrum. Graphical elements452 and 454, as well as coloring or shading schemes are used to presentall in-reply relationships at the same time. Thus, it may be difficultfor the user to decipher the relationships between messages such asmessage 456 and its parent intuitively.

Moreover, a user is more likely to focus on a smaller group of messagesrather than the whole conversation and try to figure out which messagewas in-reply to another or which messages were sent in-reply to aselected message. Thus, the overwhelming information about all of themessages is likely to confuse the user and prevent them from obtainingthe information they are actually looking for.

FIG. 5 illustrates an email application user interface according toembodiments displaying messages as part of a conversation. As discussedabove, conventional user interfaces either provide little to noinformation about conversation relationships between messages or providean overabundance of information causing confusion or inability to focuson a desired message by the user.

A user interface according to embodiments focuses on most importantpiece of information to display to the user, allowing the user toquickly get the context (the relationship of the selected message toanother within the conversation) while keeping the user interface simpleand intuitive. Such a user interface (e.g. user interface 500) maydisplay all of the messages in a conversation, rendered one afteranother, in the same “page”, which is scrollable. Each “box” (alsocalled “message-parts”) 514 corresponds to an email message and displaysthe unique parts of the message body (516), based on the message'srelationship with its parent (e.g. an in-reply-to relationship). Bydisplaying only the unique portion of the message body, the user isfurther enabled to determine a flow of conversation. The message partsin a conversation may be sorted by any criterion: chronologically withnewest on top or bottom, in deep traversal order of the conversationtree, and the like. The latter ordering approach minimizes a number ofconversation breaks that are displayed in the page.

If the user selects a particular conversation, the user interface 500may begin displaying the conversation with the most recent message orthe message that initiated the conversation on top (message 514). Atitle of the conversation (“Trade Show In New York”) 512 may beidentified explicitly by the initiating message. If the message does notexplicitly identify the conversation it is part of, the information maybe derived from the message (e.g. from a subject of the message).Conversation properties may also be set by the initial message.Alternatively, the originator of the initial message or an administratormay be provided with options to set attributes and properties of theconversation (e.g. title, default folder, importance level, etc.).

When new messages are added to the conversation, any aggregatedproperties of the conversation affected by the introduction of the newmessage may be updated. If the user selects a particular message in theconversation, that message may be displayed in detail in a separate viewpane.

Two aspects of the user interface enable a user to derive conversationinformation from the displayed messages in an optimized fashion. Thefirst one is presentation of conversation breaks 518. As mentionedpreviously, a conversation break occurs when two messages within aconversation do not follow each other according to the conversationrelationship in the current ordering of the messages (e.g. in-reply-torelationship in messages ordered chronologically). A conversation breakin a user interface according to embodiments may be presented utilizingone or more of three elements: extra space between the messages aroundthe conversation break (518), an excerpt 520 of the parent message (e.g.to which the message is in-reply to) right above the message followingthe conversation break 518, and a graphical element indicating arelationship of the message following the conversation break. In theexample user interface 500, a partial arrow (or connector icon) 522 isused to indicate that the message following the conversation break isrelated (e.g. in-reply-to) another message. This also draws attention tothe fact that a conversation break has occurred at that location.

The second aspect of a user interface according to embodiments isdisplay of message relationship(s) for only a message to which theuser's attention is drawn to. The user may indicate he/she is interestedin a message by hovering their mouse over the message (cursor focusing),selecting the message (clicking on the message part), and so on. Oncethe message of interest is determined, its parent according to theconversation relationship may be determined and the relationshipdisplayed graphically such as by connector icon 524. If no message isselected initially, the relationship between the top message and itschild may be displayed until another message is selected or focused on.

By displaying the message relationship in a relatively small portion ofthe user interface for a message of interest only, confusion due to anintricate system of three dimensional overlays, graphical elements, andindentations is avoided. The relationship may of course be presented invarious ways such as on the left side of the user interface, over thedisplayed messages (using transparent graphical elements), or othercolor/graphical schemes. The important aspect is though, maintaining thedisplay elements simplistic and focused to the message of interest tothe user. Moreover, additional information (to a reasonable degree) maybe provided by the scheme used to display the message relationship. Forexample, a thickness of the graphical elements or color may indicatedifferent types of relationship or other attributes of the messages(sent vs. received, etc.).

In order to maintain the user interface focused on the user's messagesof interest and prevent confusion due to numerous elements, messageparts, and so on, how the messages are displayed may also be determinedbased on the relationships of the messages. For example, if recipientportion of the messages in the conversation are substantially the samethat message part may be removed from display. Similarly, only contentthat is unique to each message may be displayed. Embodiments are notlimited to these two examples. Other simplification and focusingapproaches may be implemented using the principles described hereinalong with the graphic, color, and other schemes for representingrelationships of the message within their parental structure.

In addition to the conversation related parts, the email user interface500 may include standard components such as selectable controls, linksto other functionalities such as calendar. Selectable controls userinterface may include textually and/or graphically represented controlsfor standard operations as well as conversation-related operations suchas filtering message within a conversation based on conversationproperties or conversation-related message properties. Email userinterface 500 may also include a pane for displaying a list of availableconversations with their properties (muted, in order of theirorigination date, size, etc.).

According to some embodiments, messages are associated within aconversation using an “in-reply-to” relationship. Thus, a group ofmessages of a conversation may be defined as the logical tree formed bya set of the replies, starting always with a single “new” message.Embodiments are not so limited, however. A conversation may also bedefined explicitly by a user (or administrator). Users may selectconversations for a given message by a property (e.g. conversation ID),with any number of attributes, such as a color, a text, or a number.When a user sends out a message, he/she may explicitly set theconversation ID on the message (e.g. assign the message the red color).Any messages that are subsequent replies by other recipients mayautomatically carry the conversation ID (red), unless the recipientdecides to change the property while sending the reply. User interface500 may be configured to display relationships between the messagessimilarly using the principles described herein.

FIG. 6 illustrates the email application user interface of FIG. 5displaying messages as part of a conversation upon selection of anothermessage by the user. Thus, user interface 600 includes most of the sameelements of user interface 500 of FIG. 5. Differently from FIG. 5,however, in user interface 600, the message following the conversationbreak 518 has been selected (or focused on). Therefore, the userinterface presents the relationship between that message and the topmessage 514 with graphical element (arrowed connector) 626.

As discussed previously, graphical elements may be used to representrelationships (typically a parental structure) between messages in anumber of ways in conjunction with other color, shape, etc. schemes.Graphical element 626 is one example of such a scheme. The arrowed lineconnector may not only be used to show the relationship between amessage and its immediate parent, but also to indicate relationshipsbetween multiple messages in a parental structure. For example, aportion of the arrowed line connector (or any other graphical element)between the current message and its selected parent or immediate parentmay be represented with a darker color (or thicker line) while theremaining portions connecting the rest of the parental structure may berepresented with a lighter color (thinner line). That way, the entirerelationship can be presented while the selected portion is focused andmade prominent.

As mentioned above, embodiments may be implemented using a variety ofgraphical, color, and shape schemes using the principles describedherein, and are not limited to the example elements such as extra space,arrowed connectors, and one-line excerpts illustrated in the exampleuser interfaces. Furthermore, the user interfaces may be configureddifferently than illustrated in the example figures.

The described message aggregations, conversations, categories,components, properties, and scenarios in FIGS. 5 and 6 are exemplary forillustration purposes. An email system employing a user interface forreading email conversations may be implemented using additional or fewercomponents and features using the principles described herein. Otherscenarios and communication types are also possible in a system like theone described here.

FIG. 7 is an example networked environment, where embodiments may beimplemented. A user interface for reading email conversations may beimplemented in application(s) executed locally on a single computingdevice or in a distributed manner over a number of physical and virtualclients and servers. The application(s) may also be implemented inun-clustered systems or clustered systems employing a number of nodescommunicating over network(s) 730.

Such a system may comprise any topology of servers, clients, Internetservice providers, and communication media. Also, the system may have astatic or dynamic topology. The term “client” may refer to a clientapplication or a client device. While a networked system executing anapplication with a user interface for reading email conversations mayinvolve many more components, relevant ones are discussed in conjunctionwith this figure.

Email applications providing user interfaces for email conversations maybe implemented in individual client devices 731-733 or executed on aserver (e.g. server 734) and accessed from anyone of the client devices(or applications). In a hosted email service managed by one or moreservers, messages and other data may be stored in system data storessuch as data store 738 and accessed directly by the clients or in datastores 735 managed by database server 736.

Network(s) 730 may include a secure network such as an enterprisenetwork or a cellular network, an unsecure network such as a wirelessopen network, or the Internet. Network(s) 730 provide communicationbetween the nodes described herein. By way of example, and notlimitation, network(s) 730 may include wired media such as a wirednetwork or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic,RF, infrared and other wireless media.

Many other configurations of computing devices, applications, datasources, data distribution systems may be employed to implement an emailsystem according to embodiments. Furthermore, the networked environmentsdiscussed in FIG. 7 are for illustration purposes only. Embodiments arenot limited to the example applications, modules, or processes.

FIG. 8 and the associated discussion are intended to provide a brief,general description of a suitable computing environment in whichembodiments may be implemented. With reference to FIG. 8, a blockdiagram of an example computing operating environment is illustrated,such as computing device 800. In a basic configuration, the computingdevice 800 may be a computer executing an email application andtypically include at least one processing unit 802 and system memory804. Computing device 800 may also include a plurality of processingunits that cooperate in executing programs. Depending on the exactconfiguration and type of computing device, the system memory 804 may bevolatile (such as RAM), non-volatile (such as ROM, flash memory, etc.)or some combination of the two. System memory 804 typically includes anoperating system 805 suitable for controlling the operation of anetworked personal computer, such as the WINDOWS® operating systems fromMICROSOFT CORPORATION of Redmond, Wash. The system memory 804 may alsoinclude one or more software applications such as program modules 806and email application 822.

Email application 822 is configured to aggregate messages inconversations according to various approaches as described previously,and to provide a user interface for an e-mail user to read and interactwith an e-mail conversation of random complexity intuitively. This basicconfiguration is illustrated in FIG. 8 by those components within dashedline 808.

The computing device 800 may have additional features or functionality.For example, the computing device 800 may also include additional datastorage devices (removable and/or non-removable) such as, for example,magnetic disks, optical disks, or tape. Such additional storage isillustrated in FIG. 8 by removable storage 809 and non-removable storage810. Computer storage media may include volatile and nonvolatile,removable and non-removable media implemented in any method ortechnology for storage of information, such as computer readableinstructions, data structures, program modules, or other data. Systemmemory 804, removable storage 809 and non-removable storage 810 are allexamples of computer storage media. Computer storage media includes, butis not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memorytechnology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other opticalstorage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage orother magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used tostore the desired information and which can be accessed by computingdevice 800. Any such computer storage media may be part of device 800.Computing device 800 may also have input device(s) 812 such as keyboard,mouse, pen, voice input device, touch input device, etc. Outputdevice(s) 814 such as a display, speakers, printer, etc. may also beincluded. These devices are well known in the art and need not bediscussed at length here.

The computing device 800 may also contain communication connections 816that allow the device to communicate with other computing devices 818,such as over a wireless network in a distributed computing environment,for example, an intranet or the Internet. Other computing devices 818may include server(s) that execute applications associated with a dataaccess and directory service. Communication connection 816 is oneexample of communication media. Communication media may typically beembodied by computer readable instructions, data structures, programmodules, or other data in a modulated data signal, such as a carrierwave or other transport mechanism, and includes any information deliverymedia. The term “modulated data signal” means a signal that has one ormore of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encodeinformation in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation,communication media includes wired media such as a wired network ordirect-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF,infrared and other wireless media.

The claimed subject matter also includes methods. These methods can beimplemented in any number of ways, including the structures described inthis document. One such way is by machine operations, of devices of thetype described in this document.

Another optional way is for one or more of the individual operations ofthe methods to be performed in conjunction with one or more humanoperators performing some. These human operators need not be collocatedwith each other, but each can be only with a machine that performs aportion of the program.

FIG. 9 illustrates a logic flow diagram for process 900 of displayingemails according to a conversation in a user interface according to oneembodiment. Process 900 may be implemented in a local or distributedemail application.

Process 900 begins with operation 902, where a new message is receivedby the email application. The email may belong to an existingconversation or may originate a new conversation. For relevance andsimplicity, it is assumed that the received message belongs to anexisting conversation. Processing advances from operation 902 tooperation 904.

At operation 904, the conversation to which the message belongs to isdetermined. As described previously, this may be through explicitidentification of the conversation in the message or to derivation ofthe conversation identification from the message (e.g. subject line,reply-to relationship, etc.). Processing moves from operation 904 tooptional operation 906, where aggregated conversation properties areupdated based on the newly received message as explained previously.Processing proceeds from optional operation 906 to operation 908.

At operation 908, conversation breaks are (re)determined. In an existingconversation, conversation breaks (where a message flow according to anin-reply-to relationship, etc. is broken) may already be known, but theymay change based on the newly received message. Processing moves fromoperation 908 to operation 910, where a focused message and its parentaccording to a defining relationship criterion of the conversation (suchas in-reply-to relationship) may be determined. A focused message may beone that the user selects by clicking on the message in the userinterface, by hovering over the message with a cursor (also called amouse-over), or through any other method such as selection of a messagethrough keyboard entry. Processing advances from operation 910 tooperation 912.

At operation 912, the conversation is displayed with the message partscontaining unique content from the body of their corresponding messagesbeing presented in a scrollable page according to a chronological order,a deep traversal order of a conversation tree structure, or an orderaccording to a user assigned message attribute. The messages may includean electronic mail message, an audio recording, an instant message, avideo recording, an image, or a graphic. The displayed message parts mayalso include selectable controls for performing actions associated witheach message. The conversation breaks are presented employing extraspaces between message parts, excerpts from parent message above a childmessage following the break, and/or graphical elements (e.g. a brokenconnector icon). The conversation breaks may also be presented byemploying a color scheme and a shading scheme applied to the messageparts before and after the break and the extra spacing. Moreover, themessage parts may also be presented employing indentations, tabbing, orsandwiching. Processing moves from operation 912 to operation 914.

At operation 914, a relationship between the focused message and itsparent (e.g. the message to which the focused message is in-reply to) isdisplayed on the user interface presenting the conversation. This may beaccomplished by using simplistic graphical elements such as a connectoricon with an arrow on one side of the user interface such that user'sattention is only drawn to that particular relationship and not confusedby a complicated web of relationship displays. The connector may bedeployed to the right side of the user interface next to the messageparts, left side of the user interface next to the message parts, orover the message parts using a transparent coloring scheme. A thickness,a location, a texture, and/or a color of the connector may be used toprovide additional information associated with message attributes,message relationships, and a relationship types.

The operations included in process 900 are for illustration purposes.Displaying emails according to a conversation in a user interface may beimplemented by similar processes with fewer or additional steps, as wellas in different order of operations using the principles describedherein.

The above specification, examples and data provide a completedescription of the manufacture and use of the composition of theembodiments. Although the subject matter has been described in languagespecific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to beunderstood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is notnecessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above.Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed asexample forms of implementing the claims and embodiments.

1. A method to be executed at least in part in a computing device forproviding a user interface that displays messages as part of aconversation, the method comprising: receiving a new message;determining a conversation associated with the received message, whereinmessages forming the conversation conform to a predefined relationshipwith at least one other message within the conversation, wherein thepredefined relationship is an “in-reply-to” relationship within theconversation; determining a conversation break within the conversation,the conversation break comprising a plurality of elements, presented inthe user interface, between at least one preceding message having the“in-reply-to” relationship within the conversation and a message whichlacks the “in-reply-to” relationship within the conversation withrespect to the at least one preceding message, the plurality of elementscomprising extra spacing between the message having the “in-reply-to”relationship and the message which lacks the “in-reply-to” relationship,an excerpt from a parent message, the excerpt immediately preceding themessage which lacks the “in-reply-to” relationship with respect to theat least one preceding message, and a graphic element appended only tothe message which lacks the “in-reply-to” relationship; determining amessage of interest for a user; and displaying the conversation withinthe user interface by: presenting message parts associated with eachmessage within the conversation according to a selected order, whereineach message part includes a user name associated with a message, a timeof receipt, and a portion of body of the message that is unique comparedto a parent of the message based on the “in-reply-to” relationship; andpresenting a relationship of the message of interest within a parentalstructure of the messages forming the conversation visually.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the message parts are presented in ascrollable page according to one of: a chronological order and a deeptraversal order of a conversation tree.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the message of interest is determined based on one of: receivinga user selection of a message part and a user focusing of a cursor on amessage part.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein a relationship of themessage of interest with its parent is presented employing at least onefrom a set of: a color scheme, a graphic scheme, an indentation scheme,and a shading scheme.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the graphicscheme includes an arrowed connector between the message of interest andits parent.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the connector is displayedon one of: right side of the user interface next to the message parts,left side of the user interface next to the message parts, and over themessage parts using a transparent coloring scheme.
 7. The method ofclaim 5, wherein one of a thickness and a color of at least a portion ofthe connector are used to provide additional information associated withat least one from a set of: message attributes, message relationships,and a relationship type.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the messageparts are presented employing one of: indentations, tabbing, andsandwiching.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphic element usedto indicate the conversation break includes at least one from a set of:a partial arrowed connector, a straight line, a dashed line, and anicon.
 10. A computing device capable of executing an email applicationfor providing a user interface that displays messages as part of aconversation, comprising: a memory; a data store; and a processorcoupled to the memory and the data store, wherein the processor isutilized to: determine a desired order of display for the messages inthe conversation, wherein a subset of the messages in the conversationare related to each other by an “in-reply-to” relationship; determine aconversation break within the conversation, the conversation breakcomprising a plurality of elements, presented in the user interfacebetween at least one preceding message having the “in-reply-to”relationship within the conversation and a message which lacks the“in-reply-to” relationship within the conversation with respect to theat least one preceding message, the plurality of elements comprisingextra spacing between the message having the “in-reply-to” relationshipand the message which lacks the “in-reply-to” relationship, an excerptfrom a parent message, the excerpt immediately preceding the messagewhich lacks the “in-reply-to” relationship with respect to the at leastone preceding message, and a graphic element appended only to themessage which lacks the “in-reply-to” relationship; determine a messageof interest for a user; and display the conversation within the userinterface by: presenting message parts associated with each message in ascrollable page according to the desired order, the page identified bythe conversation title, wherein each message part includes a user nameassociated with a message, a time of receipt, and a portion of body ofthe message that is unique compared to a parent of the message based onthe “in-reply-to” relationship; and presenting a relationship of themessage of interest with another message, to which the message ofinterest is in-reply-to, using at least one from a set of: a colorscheme, a graphic scheme, an indentation scheme, and a shading scheme.11. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the title of theconversation is determined from the originating message through one of:explicit definition and derivation from a subject line of theoriginating message.
 12. The computing device of claim 10, wherein theprocessor is further utilized to: present the conversation break byemploying at least one of: a color scheme and a shading scheme appliedto the first and second message parts and the extra spacing between thefirst and second message parts.
 13. The computing device of claim 10,wherein the processor is further utilized to: present the relationshipof the message of interest with at least the other message, to which themessage of interest is in-reply-to, using a graphic connector element,wherein at least one from a set of: a color, a location, and a textureof the connector element is used to provide additional informationassociated with an attribute of the relationship.
 14. The computingdevice of claim 10, wherein the message of interest is determined by oneof: a user click, a user mouse-over, and a user selection through akeyboard entry on a message part within the page.
 15. Acomputer-readable storage device with instructions stored thereon forproviding user interface that displays messages as part of aconversation, the instructions comprising: receiving a new message;determining a conversation associated with the received message based onan “in-reply-to” relationship of the message to another message withinthe conversation; updating conversation properties based on the receivedmessage, the conversation properties including at least one from a setof: a title of the conversation, an order of messages within theconversation, and a structure of messages within the conversation;determining a desired order of display for the messages; determiningconversation breaks within the updated conversation based on the desiredorder of display, wherein each of the conversation breaks comprises aplurality of elements, presented in a user interface, between at leastone preceding message having the “in-reply-to” relationship within theconversation and a message which lacks the “in-reply-to” relationshipwithin the conversation with respect to the at least one precedingmessage, the plurality of elements comprising extra spacing between themessage having the “in-reply-to” relationship and the message whichlacks the “in-reply-to” relationship, an excerpt from a parent message,the excerpt immediately preceding the message which lacks the“in-reply-to” relationship with respect to the at least one precedingmessage, and a graphic element appended only to the message which lacksthe “in-reply-to” relationship; presenting message parts that are uniquefor each message based on a comparison of each message with otherswithin the conversation in a scrollable page according to the desiredorder such that a display of the conversation reduces user confusion dueto numerous elements, wherein the scrollable page is identified by theconversation title, wherein each message part includes a user nameassociated with a message, a time of receipt, and a portion of body ofthe message that is unique compared to a parent of the message based onthe “in-reply-to” relationship; determining a message of interest basedon one of: user selection and user focusing on a message part within thepage; and presenting a relationship of the message of interest withanother message, to which the message of interest is in-reply-to, usinga graphic scheme.
 16. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15,wherein the desired order includes one of a chronological order, a deeptraversal order of a conversation tree structure, and an order accordingto a user assigned message attribute.
 17. The computer-readable storagedevice of claim 15, wherein the displayed message parts includeselectable controls for performing actions associated with each message.18. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein themessages include at least one from a set of: an electronic mail message,an audio recording, an instant message, a video recording, an image, anda graphic.